"A Committee of Correspondence"

30 January 2013

"BOSTON, April 20 - National Guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault weapons were ambushed on April 19th by elements of a para-military extremist faction. Military and law enforcement sources estimated that 72 were killed and more than 20 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw.
Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement. Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices.
The governor, who described the group's organizers as "criminals," issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government's efforts to secure law and order."
Fred

Comments

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Sounds like the email writers were making a necessary point -- 99% of the citizens of the republic have no family members in the armed forces and didn't seem to care much about the strain on members of the Armed Forces and their families during the Neo-Conservative adventures of The Decider President.

I think it has to be just a story. The film, obviously, had to simplify. Howard commanded the coup de main force, whose task was to achieve total surprise and capture both the bridge over the Caen Canal, and the adjacent bridge over the Orne, intact if possible: which they did.

The much larger 7 Para force, which obviously could not achieve surprise, was dropped shortly after, and the defence of the bridges was commanded by their CO, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Geoffrey Pine-Coffin, one of whose subordinates Todd was.

The notion of having an actor playing Todd reporting to Todd playing Howard was probably a joke.

As I noted, Howard was a pre-war regular army NCO promoted officer. Pine-Coffin was a pre-war regular officer, coming from an old Devon family with a strong military tradition, educated at Eton and Cambridge.

Some years before, Todd had played Guy Gibson, who led the famous 'Dambusters' raid, in a film which was indelibly impressed on the minds of many schoolboys of my generation. So he was an obvious choice for the role created by conflating Howard and Pine-Coffin.

Absolutely - Northumberland is much like Maine, although I have to say I am always reminded of Western Scotland when I got to Maine. There are hills in Northumberland but no mountains. Lincolnshire is a tough place as well. Climate is not as cold but its very very flat and right on the sea. The sky seems very low there and is generally grey. I think you have to be tough minded to live there.

I think you would enjoy the UK. Dont let anyone kid you - most Brits love Americans. However its not a polite place. If you want polite I think the United States is better.

Not really analogous though, is it? The British in 1775 weren't after small arms at all, they were trying to corral up cannon and the large quantities of powder those cannon required, because those were the only real threat to their military control of Boston.

Since many if not most of those cannon had been previously "liberated" in raids of Crown forts like Fort William and Mary by John Sullivan and others, a closer analogy today would be if a local militia broke into a federal base and seized and drove off artillery or heavy armored vehicles, complete with ammunition, for potential future use in an uprising. What would the appropriate federal response be in that hypothetical? Lincoln seemed to have a pretty clear idea on that subject.

A lot of what we would consider appropriate behavior for citizens in a non-democracy like the Thirteen Colonies in response to oppression doesn't seem so honorable when those citizens have the vote.

Nationalist drivel. You may worship lincoln but I do not. The 13 colonies all had legislatures and if they would have been willing to live with the "supervision" of the Westminster parliament they could have run their internal affairs pretty much as they pleased. They were not willing to do that. You are obviously a faithful Tory servant of current policty in Afghanistan, etc. Enjoy. Your side of the argument has brought the United States to stalemate and then to efeat in Iraq and soon in Afghanistan. The "surge" in Iraq was a flop. The Awakening had little to do with the Surge and that is what Hagel should have told the madman from Arizona. BTW, what is your present or past rank in the US armed forces and what is your experience? Try not to lie. I see that you are in Ottawa. Why did I not know? pl